Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) says it has reduced its coal burning in the past few years, despite claims to the contrary by Foxconn founder and 2024 presidential hopeful Terry Gou (郭台銘 ). The national power company says they have reduced the amount of coal burned at their largest power plant by 6 million tons since 2016, which they say reduces their share of air pollution by 60%.
In a Facebook post late on Sunday, Gou criticized the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for their policies on nuclear power. The DPP supported a referendum in late 2021 which prevented restarting construction on what would be Taiwan’s fourth nuclear power plant. Gou says that the DPP administration has to burn large amounts of coal to make up for the lack of nuclear power. Gou adds that Taiwanese people are questioning whether this is why lung cancer is the leading cause of death in parts of central Taiwan.
Taipower in refuting Gou’s claims says the amount of green energy produced in Taiwan has increased while coal use is being reduced. They say that two coal-fired units at the Taichung plant will be shut down by 2026 and replaced with natural gas units, reducing air pollution emissions by another 40%. They add that the share of power generated by wind and solar power has also increased since 2016.
Taipower’s Taichung Power Plant is the fourth largest coal burning plant in the world by generation capacity.